VIENNA (23 October 2026) – The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) welcomes the landmark adoption of Resolution L.4 at the 13th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC), a major step toward strengthening the international response to environmental crime. 

Environments crimes, including trafficking of wild fauna and flora, illegal fishing, and illegal mining, are ravaging nature across the globe and harming local communities and economic development.  

The decision at the UN meeting launches negotiations of the first-ever international agreement against several transnational environmental crimes: trafficking in wild fauna and flora, including timber and timber products; the illegal mining of and trafficking in minerals and precious metals; and trafficking in waste. This agreement - to be negotiated in the coming two years - will take the form of an additional Protocol to the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC), placing environmental crime on the same legal footing as other serious transnational crimes, such as trafficking in persons and firearms. 

Alice Pasqualato, Global Policy Specialist – Environmental Crime, Wildlife Conservation Society, said: 

“This is a landmark moment in the global fight against environmental crime. At a time when multilateralism is under unprecedented strain, governments have come together to recognise that crimes such as wildlife trafficking and illegal mining are serious forms of transnational organised crime that require a coordinated international response. 

“Criminal networks operate across borders, while our legal responses too often stop at them. Different jurisdictions end up speaking different legal languages, with some environmental offences being criminalized in one country but not the other. A dedicated international agreement offers a historic opportunity to close that gap, strengthen international cooperation and give governments better tools to disrupt the criminal networks profiting from the exploitation of wildlife and natural resources.  

“WCS particularly recognizes the leadership of Brazil, France, and Peru in bringing governments together behind this initiative and congratulates all the co-sponsors and Civil Society partners whose commitment and diplomacy helped make today’s decision possible. 

“Today’s decision is an important milestone, but it is the beginning, not the end, of the process. Attention must now turn to the negotiations and ensuring that the agreement that will be brought back to governments in 2028 at the 14th Conference of the Parties is as strong, practical and effective as possible. 

“WCS stands ready to contribute its experience and expertise to that process, so that the resulting Protocol gives countries the tools they need to prevent, investigate and prosecute these crimes and cooperate effectively across borders.” 

The decision to launch negotiations of an international agreement against environmental crime builds on the work of the UNTOC Intergovernmental Expert Group on Crimes that Affect the Environment, which discussed the possibility of an additional Protocol to the Convention throughout 2025 and 2026. 

WCS has strongly supported a dedicated Protocol as an opportunity to strengthen cross-border cooperation, disrupt criminal networks and illicit financial flows, recover criminal proceeds, and hold those profiting from the destruction of natural resources to account. 

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